Dr Ludovic Vallier

Ludovic uses human pluripotent stem cells - cells with the ability to develop into almost any type of cell in the body
- to study how biological mechanisms direct them to become a pancreas or liver cell. He is also investigating the role
these mechanisms play in diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

Ludovic graduated in Molecular biology and Immunology from the University Claude Bernard Lyon I in 1997.

In 2001, he earned his PhD at Ecole Normale Superieur of Lyon in the group of Jacques Samarut, under the supervision of
Pierre Savatier, studying mechanisms that control the cell cycle in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells.

Following a year in the biotechnology industry, Ludovic joined Professor Pedersen's group at the University of
Cambridge Department of Surgery to work on human ES cells and the mechanisms controlling their differentiation into
endodermal cells (cells which make up the gastrointestinal tract and related organs such as the liver and pancreas). In
2005, he was awarded a stem cells career development fellowship jointly funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC)
and Diabetes UK to study the molecular mechanisms that induce human pluripotent stem cells to become pancreas cells.

After this, he was awarded a MRC senior-non clinical fellowship in 2008 to further develop his interest on endoderm
differentiation toward liver and pancreas and joined the newly opened Anne McLaren Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine
(LRM) as a Principal Investigator. Since, he has been studying the molecular mechanisms controlling early cell fate
decisions and used this knowledge to develop laboratory-based systems for modelling metabolic disorders.

Ludovic is now Reader in Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine and member of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. He is
also the director of the Cambridge National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)/Biomedical Research Centre HiPSC
(human induced pluripotent stem cell) core facility.

Ludovic joined the Sanger Institute in 2012 as a member of Faculty with a joint appointment with Cambridge University.
His is studying the genetic mechanisms that control pancreas and liver development to uncover new targets for treating
metabolic disorders such as diabetes.